The present invention relates to computer systems, and more particularly to providing information or user interfaces in computer systems.
Various methods of providing multiple user interfaces in computer systems are well known in the art. Some of these methods attempt to vary the user interface, and the information provided therein, according to the user. In these methods, the user interface is changed based upon information the user provides about himself or herself. For example, the user may create a personal profile or answer a set of questions which are then stored on a computer system. The user""s level of authority and experience in working with a particular system may be determined from the profile or answers, and the displayed information and/or interface are changed to match them. However, these conventional methods are cumbersome since they need the user to manually create the profile or answer the questions. In addition, if the user wishes the information and/or user interface display to be changed again, the user must change the profile or the answers. Thus, even if the user""s experience level, for example, has improved, the information and/or interface displayed does not change accordingly unless the user affirmatively changes his or her profile or answers. The conventional methods are thus static.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for dynamically determining the appropriate information and/or interface for presentation to differing users. The present invention addresses such a need.
The present invention provides a method and system for providing information and/or an interface in a computer system. The method includes determining that a user is accessing the system; analyzing the user""s role in the system without a need for the user to provide a description of the user; returning an estimate of the user""s role based upon the analyzing step; and displaying or modifying the information and/or the interface based upon the returned estimate. The method and system in accordance with the present invention dynamically determines the appropriate information and/or interface for presentation to differing users. The present invention provides the means for information and graphical user interface (GUI) creators to present different information or GUIs to different user types, such as administrators and end users, and to different user experience levels, such as expert and novice, without requiring users to describe themselves. The present invention accomplishes this by performing a programmatic analysis of a user""s rights within a system to derive type and experience level information using information already available according to the standards used by the system.